As the state wasn’t able to use the app during its dry run because it wasn’t ready then, the first day saw many messages failing to reach recipients, leading to suspension of drive
Staff at the vaccination centre at JJ Hospital check a vaccine beneficiary’s parameters
Mumbai: As the dust settled on Day 1 of the COVID-19 vaccination drive in the city, civic officials revealed that the central government’s CoWIN app failed to send messages on Friday to healthcare professionals shortlisted to get the vaccine. This led to the BMC having to make around 4,000 calls to ensure a smooth vaccination drive.
ADVERTISEMENT
A healthcare professional gets the vaccine at the hospital on Saturday. Pics/Ashish Raje
Civic employees had started calling registered beneficiaries for Sunday’s drive too, but as per instructions from the Centre, the drive has been postponed. Even though dry runs of the exercise were conducted across the state, it has also come to light that the most important link — the CoWIN app — was not part of the trials as it was not ready then.
A health worker gets the Covishield vaccine at Nair hospital on Saturday
“The app was not ready at that time. The dry run was conducted with only 25 people at each centre so we managed it without the CoWIN app. We were informed that the app would be ready before the drive. Though we sent messages through the app, no one received them. So we had to make individual calls to each person,” said a BMC officer on the condition of anonymity. He said around 4,000 calls were made. Assuming they will get a message well in advance, many people had made weekend plans when none came.
Health workers wait at Nair hospital’s vaccination centre during the Day 1 of the drive
Some people received calls in the middle of the night. “One health worker got a call around 2 am to come for the vaccination. There is still no clarity about vaccination for people with co-morbidities like diabetes,” said another official connected to the drive.
‘Waiting for app to be ready’
Civic officials said that the app was not ready on Saturday either. After instructions from state authorities, the centres started registering people’s names in computers. On the other hand, other teams started calling registered health workers for Sunday’s drive. Then the central government said that entries must be made through CoWIN itself. Finally, after a discussion with the state health officers, the drive was postponed and the BMC issued a public message at 10 pm. Afterwards, the state issued a clarification that the drive was not scheduled so the question of cancellation does not arise.
Mayor Kishori Pednekar said, “There were technical issues with the CoWIN app. The state government asked permission for offline registration but the Centre denied it. The work on the technical issues is going on.” Of the intended 4,000, 1,926 people were vaccinated on Saturday. Meanwhile, not a single case of adverse effects from the vaccine was reported until Sunday evening.
“With the kind of massive work, we are happy that we could vaccinate around 50 per cent of the target. There isn’t any case of adverse effects reported until now. All the beneficiaries have been told to call their centre immediately in case of symptoms,” said Dr Mangla Gomare, executive health officer of the BMC. BMC officials are now waiting for further instructions from the Centre. “We are ready with other infrastructure. Once the app is ready we will start the drive again,” said Dr Gomare.
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
